Marshall sold!

[ruffrecords]

Iconic UK guitar amp maker Marshall has been sold to bluetooth speaker manufacturer Zounds for an undisclosed sum. Apparently the two have been cooperating for some time.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Tubetec]

Marshall have been producing lifestyle consumer products for a good few years , hopefully it doesnt mean the end of the great marque in valve amplifier history .

 

[living sounds]

Music with guitars in it isn't what younger people listen to these days...

 

[fazer]

Music with guitars in it isn't what younger people listen to these days...

When I was a teenager, I didn’t like big band which my parents loved. Now I enjoy those song. I work up a bunch of old standards on guitar. Go figure. I don’t use my marshall much these days however.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I remember years ago when Marshal decided to shift their offshore contract manufacturing from Korea to India to get them made for even less money. The problem was that the Korean factory owner didn't want to just shut down his factory and send all his workers home. He made a few minor cosmetic changes and started selling Park amps. One industry joke was that backwards that spells "Krap".

JR

 

[Tubetec]

Partially correct , but Park amps started out just like Marshalls , every bit as good , then later the name was re-invented to cover a range of budget amps made in the far east .

 

[fazer]

I thought park started as a in-house marshall for local stores or something. Not sure where I heard this. Could be internet legend.

 

[JohnRoberts]

When the Korean factory decided to keep making his knock offs... He first sold them through mail order catalogs in the US.... I'm not sure how he sold them in the rest of the world.

JR

 

[MatthewF]

I thought park started as a in-house marshall for local stores or something. Not sure where I heard this. Could be internet legend.

The story I heard was that Rose Morris on Denmark St, London, had gained exclusive rights to distribute Marshall amps and were doing a crap job of it, so Marshall started selling their amps under a new brand - Park - until the Rose Morris deal had come to an end. It's true that the early Park 50W and 100W valve amps are near identical to the Marshalls of the era. (Entirely different to the budget SS stuff that came out under the Park brand in later years, which I guess is what JR's story refers to.)

 

[MatthewF]

I heard that in a bar on Denmark St, but it seems to be corroborated here:

rose/morris era